Drax wrote:Don't knock yourself out... it's not the clarity of the picture, it's the style of writing. It's similar to the "grass style" of Japanese, but I'm not sure what the term is in Chinese. The difficulty is that many strokes get abbreviated into very artful swoops and swirls. And there's not necessarily a one-to-one correspondence that results.

Funny enough, "grass script" is the term in Chinese as well. Actually it's really not much of a coincidence.

Anyway, tst, don't worry about the picture; it's as clear as can be. As others have said, it's the handwriting/calligraphy that is difficult to read, just as unfamiliar cursive can seem like nothing but loops and squiggles.

Don't knock yourself out... it's not the clarity of the picture, it's the style of writing. It's similar to the "grass style" of Japanese, but I'm not sure what the term is in Chinese. The difficulty is that many strokes get abbreviated into very artful swoops and swirls. And there's not necessarily a one-to-one correspondence that results.

Drax,

Yes, in Mandarin it's called cao3 xie3 草寫 (grass writing) as well and is the favorite style of calligraphy for both my wife and I. True, 草寫 is meant to convey its essence by the spirit, flow, and placement of its movement and often blends its strokes together as it flows, obscuring strokes as well as the radicals in the structure of the character. I seen some wonderful calligraphy installations in Taiwan of 草寫. Complicating this is the medium on which the inscription was placed, carved with a thin edge into the still-soft surface of the pot.

Aware of all this, I am still curious though...and enjoy the challenge of unlocking the inscription. I reflect on Chinese history as well, trying to remember any poems that it may be a line from. I have various characters in mind for the piece as I look at it again with my wife. But a total translation still eludes us...great teapot though!

Teaism wrote:Just to share 2 Yixing pots made in 1985 in red and black. The capacity is about 90ml and single hole. The stamp below the pot is 中國宜興 (China Yixing). It is a production pot in limited quantity and quite sought after by collectors now. Currently I am using them for Puer since 2 months ago. The patina is slowly building up

Having felt it from a friend who bought it from Daniel Liu, I told him I really wanted to find a similarly shaped pot. When I saw the pot at the antique market I thought the shape, clay, feeling, and stamp were familiar. It wasn't until I got home and double checked with the web site to find that the pots share the same origin. Luckily, I paid much less than what it's going for on the website.

Uh! That thing is so new, decades of brewing tea before it unleashes the beast and wisdom within. Enjoy the ride, baby.

Nice pot.

Hey chrl42,

Hope you are well.

I got a question for you, di cao qing pots are normally mixed with zi ni and QSN clays right? What is the reasoning behind this? How can you tell between a pot that has been mixed with zi ni and one that has been mixed with the second type? Dark vs light colouration? How about pots made of 100% di cao qing clay? Do they exist?

bagua7 wrote:Uh! That thing is so new, decades of brewing tea before it unleashes the beast and wisdom within. Enjoy the ride, baby.

Nice pot.

Hey chrl42,

Hope you are well.

I got a question for you, di cao qing pots are normally mixed with zi ni and QSN clays right? What is the reasoning behind this? How can you tell between a pot that has been mixed with zi ni and one that has been mixed with the second type? Dark vs light colouration? How about pots made of 100% di cao qing clay? Do they exist?

Thanks in advance.

Di Cao Qing is a pure clay, not mixed.

It's a tender, dense and heavy clay mined from the bottom of an ore..

This kind of clay has existed since Qing dynasty..masters used this type of clay for many masterpieces..

Quoting Xu Xiu-tang..Factory-1 during the CR used three types of Zini.

One is Hong Zong Ni, which is today's Qing Shui Ni..lowest grade...they used this clay to make many vases and mass produced pots

Then there's Zhong Cao Qing...kind of heavy but coarse than Di Cao Qing...they made many pots with this, too.

With Di Cao Qing, they made masterpieces or special ordered or high quality Shui Pings. Di Cao Qing is very tender and dense...excellent porosity as well. Correct me if I'm wrong

Thanks chrl42 for the good insight of DCQ. Yes it is a pure clay and not mixed and often found at the bottom. Sometimes they can be found in the upper layer too. I saw a documented trial hole on the soil and DCQ was at the 10th layer of the 26th layers dug out in Huang Loong Shan. It is unusual but at least they found it to be a pure clay. I personally like the clay very much but the pure ones hardly come by. I am not too keen on the great masters pot for obvious reason but sometimes lucky to find the clay in the early 70 or 80s pots.

Teaism wrote:Thanks chrl42 for the good insight of DCQ. Yes it is a pure clay and not mixed and often found at the bottom. Sometimes they can be found in the upper layer too. I saw a documented trial hole on the soil and DCQ was at the 10th layer of the 26th layers dug out in Huang Loong Shan. It is unusual but at least they found it to be a pure clay. I personally like the clay very much but the pure ones hardly come by. I am not too keen on the great masters pot for obvious reason but sometimes lucky to find the clay in the early 70 or 80s pots.

Cheers!

Yeah DCQ being pure I mean by 'not mixing'.

DCQ itself has a very complex clay composition..silver particle, white dots (called Ji Yan)..heavy but never to be coarse.

Mixing clay didn't exist up until late-70's (except Zhuni)..I heard potters prefer this clay due to its excellant plasticity..